Planning Ambassadors for the Developers?

A recent article in the Ottawa Citizen exposed the City’s new initiative to give developers their own ambassadors in the planning department. This speaks to the current attitude at City Hall – that they work for the developers. Meanwhile, community associations and residents are left in the dark until the last minute and our voices are largely ignored. This culture needs to change.

Developers already have the attention of the city’s planning staff and they can afford to engage lawyers, planners, architects, engineers and others to promote and justify their applications. On the other hand, community associations and residents have to devote countless hours of volunteer effort to deciphering and commenting on development proposals, usually with little success.

The planning department should be working for the residents of this City, not for the developers. We should be seen as their clients, not the developers. Community concerns and considerations should be given more weight than the financial interests of the few.

We would encourage you to write to the Mayor, demanding that he cancel this ridiculous initiative and instead provide our beleaguered volunteer community associations and residents with ambassadors in the planning department.Draft letter re planning ambassadors